Hunters Season 2 Review: A Messy, Truncated Conclusion To An Otherwise Profound Series
The first season of "Hunters" was simultaneously like a bolt of lightning and a lightning rod. Its presentation of the atrocities of the Holocaust was heavily criticized for exaggerating real-life horrors and trivializing them as a result. Its tonal inconsistencies were often misinterpreted or disregarded as careless and messy. Certain scenes were deemed overly theatrical or dramatic to a fault, and arguments were made that the message was lost as a result. Some folks also just didn't like it, and that's fair.
The exaggerations of the Holocaust are a double-edged sword. They're necessary because the world increasingly acts as if the Holocaust as we know it is in itself an exaggeration or an outright lie. And yet, exaggerating things further, making them more horrific because the truth no longer seems to horrify people, puts the community at risk of being disregarded as liars. The wild and erratic tonal shifts across the season were carefully constructed, capturing parts of the Jewish experience that are truly difficult to explain. Where humor and levity can co-exist with deep wells of sorrow and grief, that's who we are. That's how we exist and move through the world, with a bleak, self-aware sense of humor and profound reverence for the past and our history.
Everything in season 1 served a purpose, and it served it beautifully, all the way through to the end when neo-Nazi Travis Leich (Greg Austin) hired a Jewish lawyer to represent him only to murder him in cold blood and in plain sight of his cellmates. He shouted "Jews will not replace us" as he stabbed the lawyer repeatedly in the back. The same words shouted by a parade of white supremacists at the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville in 2017. The season ended with the chilling realization that Meyer Offerman (Al Pacino) was in fact Willhelm "The Wolf" Zuchs himself, a literal wolf hiding in sheep's clothing to try and protect himself. As if the implications of Operation Paperclip weren't bad enough.
There's a lot to discuss there, but that article already exists, and I hope you read it.
On top of it all, the final frames of the season revealed the horrifying truth that Adolf Hitler was still alive. "Hunters" season 2 picks up that baton, but it stumbles repeatedly while trying to carry it.
The Trial of Adolf Hitler
What was once a deliberate tonal variation meant to reflect a way of life was now just messily assembled episodes. Everything for the first few episodes of the new season feels rushed and sloppy, clumsily compiled and fragmented. This might make sense depending on when David Weil and the rest of the "Hunters" production team were informed about this season being their last. Everything up to episode 6 feels rushed like there's a longer version of the season sitting in an editing bay somewhere, and I genuinely hope we get to see it. None of this is helped by the fact that their final season was shrunk by two episodes: where season 1 had 10, season 2 was only given eight.
All of this builds up to the fictional trial of the century: "The Trial of Adolf Hitler." The implications of such a trial are enormous, and the final episode of the series does the best it can with its limited space to convey that significance. But as with much of the rest of the season, it just feels too rushed. Everything feels overly condensed and truncated at the expense of weight and emotional resonance.
Udo Kier has played Hitler before, but never seriously. Presumably, he didn't want to try and empathize with a monster. "Hunters" doesn't call for a campy portrayal of Hitler, though. That would only serve to disarm audiences, to make him appear to be acceptable in some capacity. Between the costume and makeup design, direction, and Kier's performance, he's rendered an impotent, incompetent, and irrelevant pathetic old man. He speaks of power while trembling, incapable of remembering simple things or controlling his ego and rage. The grandfather of modern white nationalism is reduced to the stature he deserves.
Hunters deserved better
Episode 7, "The Home," is where some of the first season's weight and craft finally poke through. A Wes Andersonian Nazi nightmare, and probably the best episode of the second season, David Weil's directorial effort tells one story on the surface but holds more beneath its crisp floorboards and uniquely shaped walls. It gives an impression of the banality of evil, the prospect that those Nazis who were just following orders looked and acted like normal people. It then takes a sharp turn, connecting back to the opening scenes of the season with Jennifer Jason Leigh. "Jews," she says to the shopkeep after he notices the numbers tattooed on her inner arm. "They hide in plain sight. Jews are very resourceful."
This is the underlying theme of the entire season — our resourcefulness and ability to survive no matter what. It's starkly juxtaposed with the reality that hate is just as resilient, just as resourceful, and capable of hiding in plain sight. Throughout the entire season, we get flashbacks to Pacino's Meyer Offerman as he comes to assemble the Hunters. Eventually, the flashbacks connect to the present, and the heart of the season reveals itself: evil will always fight to survive through whatever means necessary, and so too must we.
We can never truly tell who we are safe to exist around while Jewish. We are constantly on guard, careful not to be too visible for our own safety, and weary of who could try to hurt us or worse. Now more than ever. But that's another article for another time.
"Hunters" deserved a poignant and meaningful conclusion, whether that provided closure or an open-ended commentary on the prevalence of white supremacy today. Instead, it got a rushed sendoff that compromised the lasting impact of the show and delivered a weaker second and final season. There are moments that shine through, delivering something as special as the first season — "The Home" is a key example — but it's not enough to make up for its shortcomings. If this were any other show, I'd just be disappointed. But "Hunters" carried with it substantial weight and responsibility. It offered something we as Jewish people don't often get (even if we were very divided on the show): a conduit for our fear, anger, sorrow, and hope. Season 2 short-changed that, and that is profoundly disheartening.
The second and final season of "Hunters" debuts on Prime Video in its entirety on January 13, 2023.